In Defense Of: Easterling War Priests

 Hey Reader!

Today we're continuing the In Defense Of series, and Tiberius asked me to jump in and chat about the Easterling War Priest, as they have been a staple of Easterling army supports for a while, but now with the arrival of Brorgir there's a question as to whether you need these guys anymore in your army. I think you do.

We will start by looking at why people tell you not to take this model, then we'll discuss why you should take it, and then close out by discussing how to make it work effectively in your army list.

Why NOT To Take an Easterling War Priest

One of the first shamans I ever bought, painted c. 2012.
I really need to go back and redo these guys, XD

For starters, the war priest is unique among shamans in that it lacks control tools that other shamans typically have, and it costs more than shamans typically do for only marginally better stats. At F3 S3 the war priest is on-par with orc shamans, slightly ahead of goblin shamans, and behind uruk shamans, and yet it is more expensive than all of them. It still only gets the 3 Will Points, and while it has two spells like other shamans, instead of combining Fury with a control spell like Transfix, the war priest exchanges the control spell for a support spell: Bladewrath.

Bladewrath is a good spell: it increases the odds that a character wounds a target by at least 1 face, not to mention changes its Strength for the rest of the Fight Phase, so if you can sneak in an extra combat it lasts until all fights are resolved. The issue is that control spells are far more useful for neutralizing an enemy hero, as one round of maybe wounding someone on a better roll (as you have to win the fight first to roll to wound) is generally not as good as one round of a big hero not performing strikes at all.

And this doesn't even compare the war priest to shamans that get unique spells like Flameburst (with rechargeable Will, in the case of Kardush), Shatter, and Wither, all of which have their place and can dramatically change the battle on a 3+ (which is basically the same casting value as Bladewrath), often for a fraction of the cost of a war priest.

You do get better armor than most shamans at D5, and you get a free two-handed axe that is also a spear, which is very good, but for 60 points there's a legitimate question of whether perhaps you're overpaying for a hero that you probably don't want fighting beyond spear supporting, especially in an army that can get a captain (who is a far better fighter) for 5-10 points cheaper.

Such a beautiful model, but I'm not running Easterlings
at the Nova Open so no idea when I'll paint it, :-/

And then tack on the existence of Brorgir who gets more Will, more Might, and more spells to choose from (all of which Easterlings wanted), and there's a good argument for why you should leave these guys at home. Brorgir does everything they used to do, right?

Why TO Take an Easterling War Priest

To start off, I need to get something off my chest: unless you are running up against a heavy Terror army and you are afraid that your warriors and heroes will fail charges, you shouldn't cast Fury with these guys. It's not worth it. your limited Will Points should be spent on spells that will change the game for you, and for the war priest that's Bladewrath. Even with Brorgir you should only be casting spells like Enchanted Blades, maybe Tremor if you need to dismount a hero, but even then 5 uses of Bladewrath will probably be a better use of your Will Points than casting Fury.

And for the love of the Dragon Emperor certainly don't upcast Fury to grant the 6+ Save: most models in the game are wounding your army on 5s or 6s (and most of those are on 6s), so the chance that you stop a wound is already small (1 in 6), but the chance you'll even see it come up is also rare (1 in 18-36 rolls to wound will result in 1 saved wound), and the moment that you get 2 wounds against one of your models your chances of passing the save go from 1/6 to 1/36, so that guy is going to die regardless. Don't waste 10-15pts of value (1 Might and 1 Will, possibly 2 Will if you want to better guarantee it goes off) in the hopes of saving 1 guy, maybe 2 the entire game.

You don't get free Will Points to cast spells like dragons and wizards do, nor can you replenish your Will like Kardush and the Undying can. So make your Will Points count: cast the spells that actually make a difference.

And this helps to justify the place for the war priest - named or unnamed - in the list: you're running this guy because he's giving your heroes access to S6-10, allowing you to improve wounding rolls against those trapped/prone heroes, helping you cleave through that shield wall, or putting a wound on that army leader to score you points (as that's points in basically every scenario).

Second thing we need to discuss is the mount: in general I don't recommend you mount him. He has a battle stave which can spear support, which means he's still helping out even after he's done with casting spells, and that's good. But there's an exception, and this is a big part of why you'd take him over Brorgir, and that is if you are running an all mounted force. Easterlings get a lot of heroes that can take mounts, and since they can all take armored mounts they actually have the best mounted heroes all around due to this (as most of Rohan's heroes are riding unarmored horses, same with Minas Tirith). In that scenario, take the mount, but otherwise save the 15 points and buy another guy to keep you safe. 15 points is basically the cost of a kataphract, so ask the question, "Is it worth it to mount this guy, or add a mounted guy to the list alongside this guy," and that should give you your answer.

And in a pinch these guys are decent damage dealers: with the ability to Piercing Strike with a two-handed axe, these guys can get to effective S6 for 60 points, which is a very cheap way to getting to effective S6. One of the cheapest ways in the game, actually, and all while handing out S6 to someone else (you could cast Bladewrath on yourself, but I wouldn't: I'm always assuming you cast it on a model with 3 attacks to maximize the Strength bonus).

Oh, and did I mention that these guys are Heroes of Fortitude? That means you can drop a big contingent of guys with them, unlike every other shaman in the game (which is a minor hero). So keeping these guys safe is easier than it is with other shamans.

These guys are well worth taking, and they make your army a lot stronger in killing potential.

Making It Work

To start off, it's important to remember that you have 1 Might and 3 Will, and Bladewrath can be cast on a 2+. This means that you should be casting Bladewrath 3 times during the game, and one of those times it should be channeled. I carve an exception for a single standard cast of Fury if you're fighting like The Dead of Dunharrow (don't cast Fury against the Black Riders, as they'll just Sap Will to remove it) or an all monster swarm, but otherwise you should just do 3 casts of Bladewrath.

Second, and I'm sure you're already doing this, but keep him in the second rank. Since he can spear support you want to use him in this way for as long as possible. He's reliable as a spearman, and will help you win fights by giving you another chance at a high roll. But the key is to remember that you can throw him into combat if you want to, just make sure he has help. Then use your Piercing Strike and go all-in on wounding that guy on effective S6.

Is this dangerous? Actually not that dangerous: on average you'll reduce your Defense to D3, which the vast majority of models wound on 50% or lower odds. Since you have 1 Fate and 2 Wounds, they have to do 2ish wounds to wound you, and if you have help in your fight that means that you are up against 1 guy, maybe 1 guy with spear support. So the odds that they kill you are still pretty low as long as you're not running into like Aragorn or someone like that. And if you win, you have a good chance (or at least as good a chance as you're likely to get with a man-sized model) at wounding the target.

So, before we wrap up, a quick list to show you how you'd use him in your army, done as an 800pt list as the Nova Open is coming up, so my thoughts are on 800pt lists right now:

Warband 1

Amdur, Lord of Blades on Armored Horse (Army Leader): 145pts

4 Easterling Black Dragons with Shields: 40pts

4 Easterling Warriors with Shields and Pikes: 36pts

2 Easterling Warriors with Bows: 16pts

Warband 2

Dragon Knight on Armored Horse: 80pts

4 Easterling Black Dragon Kataphracts: 64pts

Warband 3

Brorgir: 80pts

2 Easterling Black Dragons with Shields: 20pts

4 Easterling Warriors with Shields and Pikes: 36pts

2 Easterling Warriors with Bows: 16pts

Warband 4

Easterling War Priest: 60pts

2 Easterling Black Dragons with Shields: 20pts

4 Easterling Warriors with Shields and Pikes: 36pts

2 Easterling Warriors with Bows: 16pts

Warband 5

Easterling Captain with Shield: 55pts

2 Easterling Black Dragons with Shields: 20pts

4 Easterling Warriors with Shields and Pikes: 36pts

3 Easterling Warriors with Bows: 16pts

TOTAL: 44 models, 800 pts, 10* Might, 6 mounted models 8* Will for Bladewrath

With this setup we have almost 10 bows for skirmishing with the enemy and holding the ground, about 30 models in our battle line, and two big mounted heroes escorted by kataphracts. This gives us 6 really good options for Bladewrath on a given turn, plus a captain if we find we want him to cleave through someone in the front ranks. And at 44 models, that's not a bad model count for 5 warbands and our cheapest model being 9 points, :)

Conclusion

For the record, I do like Rutabi! The issue was I couldn't fit her in with the points limit, so I opted for the Dragon Knight instead. Some may say, "drop the dragon knight," but, well, more on that in a future post, :)

Until next time, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"We are not all like the traitor Firenze, human girl!  Perhaps you thought us pretty talking horses?  We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults!" ~ Magorian, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix